Pop icon, Paula Abdul, became world famous as the judge on American Idol came to Israel in on what is called a very personal visit on which she is going to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah. We caught up with her while visiting President Shimon Peres’s residence in Jerusalem, where he sub’d as our interviewer.
Although the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Abdul is not Jewish, however Paula is 100% Jewish from a father whose family originated from Syria and mother whose family originated from Russia.
Abdul’s career spans over 30-years as a singer, dancer, choreographer and reality show judge.
She has won a Grammy and two Emmy awards and still to this day ties the Billboard record with Diana Ross of a female solo performer with the most number one songs in the Billboard 100 charts.
Once she arrived Israel it was extremely important to her to meet President Shimon Peres, who turns out knew a lot about Abdul.

There is no doubt that we have come a long way in the last 60-years between the Germans and the Jews. And so, maybe, it should not come as a big surprise that Tel-Aviv is hosting in the next few weeks the “Berlin Dayz”, a cultural exchange between the two metropolitans, Tel-Aviv and Berlin.

Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
There is no doubt that we have come a long way in the last 60-years between the Germans and the Jews. And so, maybe, it should not come as a big surprise that Tel-Aviv is hosting in the next few weeks the “Berlin Dayz”, a cultural exchange between the two metropolitan whereas Berlin has sent its finest artists to come perform in Israel to tighten the already warm relationship between the two people.

Andreas Michaelis, the German Ambassador to Israel, says the Berlin Dayz are the perfect opportunity to show how close Tel-Aviv actually is to Berlin.

Andreas Michaelis, German Ambassador to Israel:
It’s a wonderful opportunity to present Berlin to Tel-Aviv because there is a tremendous interest in the city of Berlin, we now estimate we have about 17,000 Israelis living in Berlin and the idea of the “Berlin Dayz” is to bring culture from Berlin to Tel Aviv, but also to re-import culture that was produced by Israelis in Berlin back to Israel. That’s the idea.

Amos Dolev, the Head of the Cultural Department at the Goethe Institute in Israel, who organized the event claims that the moment Berlin is mentioned in Israel there immediately a lot of interest in the room.

Amos Dolev, Head of Cultural Dept., Goethe Institute Tel-Aviv:
The minute you mention Berlin it is a big hype in Tel-Aviv, at all in Israel and we’re taking this wave. Many, many Israelis are moving in and out of Berlin, a lot stay also, but there’s a lot movement going on. As a result of that a lot of co-productions and cooperations between German and Israeli artists have occurred over the years and that’s why we decided to bring a part of Berlin to Tel-Aviv.

We wanted to find out from some of the participants what they thought of the concept of the Berlin Dayz.

Idan Mansano. Tel-Aviv Resident:
Now we are here with plenty of people, part of them are German and a lot of Israelis and I don’t know, I feel like I’m in a bar in Berlin now.

Katja Michaelson, Tel-Aviv Resident:
I was very excited because I have friends in Berlin and I visit Berlin three years ago and it was very amazing, such a city, such a beautiful people and I said: ok I’m going and I will enjoy here and I will meet new nice people.

Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
It looks like the Tel-Avivians are very happy to embrace the Berliners and give them a very warm Israeli welcome.
For JN1 I am on Ron Jacobsohn from the Berlin Dayz launch party in the Port of Jaffa.